


Goodness, You're Way Too Much

by zxrysky



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Character Study, Keith's Mother - Freeform, M/M, PINING KEITH, Pining, and his mom, everything else is canon and in space, for now only those few characters, keith has magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-28
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-07-27 07:23:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7609069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zxrysky/pseuds/zxrysky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You are magic," his mother tells him.</p><p>Keith stays silent.</p><p>-=-</p><p>All legends are true. Keith is fully aware of that. But sometimes, he wishes that they weren't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

When he's five, his mother gives him a book. It's one her mother gave her, a tattered book with a broken spine, filled with dulled colors and yellowed pages. It's old, older than his mother, apparently, and she gives it to him with a gentle grip and tender eyes.

 

"For you," she says quietly, and opens the book to the first page, where the dedication is scribbled in faded black ink, the color staining the pages like blood on white sheets when he cuts his finger.

 

"给我最心爱的孩子," it reads. _To my dearest child_. "希望你也把它传给你的孩子。" _In the hope that you pass it on to your next child._

 

"What's this?" He asks, rubbing his finger over the ink, tracing the characters written by his grandmother. In this day and age, where holograms are everywhere and books have long since made the transition into software, drifting online in the realm of the internet, this is the second time he's seen a book. The first time he's seen one, he didn't actually read it. It was a book his mother had read in preparation for him, she had said. _How to raise a child_.

 

 _You did pretty good,_ he had told her firmly, and she had laughed, bright and happy, tinkling like wind chimes in the sky.

 

"It's a story. About a legend." His mother strokes his hair, placing her hand across his. "A legend passed down in our family."

 

Legends always stem from something. Believe everything, his mother told him. Nothing is impossible. He holds the book closer.

 

"Is it real?" He asks his mother.

 

She doesn't say anything, but she grips his hand and her smile tightens. "All legends are true."

 

He flips open the book, and a whine settles in his throat when he realizes it's all in Chinese.

 

-=-

 

Keith doesn't know when or how, but he's always known that he can do things others can't. It's the simple things that tell him this: the way he never gets bruised even though he trips like it's a new fad, the way he can scream with laughter outside the grouchy old lady's house but never get yelled at even though other kids are sent home crying when they try the same, the way he can run deep into the cursed forest in the middle of the night but still find his way home.

 

The cursed forest is not a joke. Children have entered, they have gone missing, and his mother doesn't do anything but remind him to come back before breakfast the next day if he wants to go into the forest. The forest is wild and there are noises coming from it at varying times of the day, but they are loudest and eeriest at night when children lie in their bed and shudder.

 

He goes in, and the vines pool at his feet, curling at his ankles and the shadows inch towards him, quiet and dark and everything Keith wishes he could be. When he's draped in black, hiding in the world between here and there, that's when Keith feels the most at ease.

 

His mother has never entered the forest to find him. Then again, when it gets too late - too early? - when the day is about to break, when the sky lights up again in hues of crayons that Keith accidentally melted when he broke them, it feels like the forest is pushing him out. Reminding him with harsh tendrils and painful thorns that his mother is waiting.

 

Keith goes. There isn't anywhere else for him to go.

 

-=-

 

"You are magic," his mother tells him.

 

Keith stays silent.

 

-=-

 

When he's eleven, he's long limbed and lanky, tripping over himself when he climbs stairs or walks with his eyes on his hologram instead of the road, and it's on a normal day like always when he enters his house and finds it lacking.

 

His mother, Keith decides, standing stock still in the hallway and wondering where his mother's scent has disappeared off to. She's always smelt like ash, like incense, but Keith has never seen his mother pray.

 

He wanders through the house, fingers grazing items that seem to retain her lingering scent - they are few and far between, and Keith wonders why he can't feel anything from the picture of them hanging on the wall, but can feel his mother's touch on the table in the kitchen.

 

The book is on his table, and his windows are thrown open, wind sauntering in and messing up his curtains, blowing his hair into disarray. He makes to open the book, wondering if perhaps his mother had left something, and the book flips open as a big gush of wind blows in.

 

The pages flutter, and they land on a story. There is a slight indent on the corner of the page, like someone's holding it down with a finger, and Keith gravitates towards it.

 

He doesn't touch it. Instead, he looks at the book, looks at the legend put into words on yellowed paper and sees a hastily scribbled note.

 

_妈妈得走了。_

 

His finger hovers over it, hesitating to touch the black ink that has yet to dry, and he lets his eyes drift down to the words below.

 

It was his favourite story when he was younger. It was his favourite because it didn't have a happy ending.

 

_"All legends are true."_

 

His mother's words resonate in his mind like a dying message.

 

-=-

 

It's a classic. Romance is something everyone craves to read, no matter which culture. Forbidden love is even better, and a god falls in love with a human, the way people fall in love with dangerous things, the way people love fleeting things, the way people love things that will hurt them. It's a beautiful portrayal of breaking apart, with these two diverse beings destroying themselves with each other.

 

Their child is born from love, but he is why the story becomes a tragedy.

 

Gods are jealous of the things they cannot have, and love with humans is one of them. And so, and _so_ , instead of punishing the parents, they branded the child.

 

 _Until he dies_ , they said, _this child will not know love._

 

-=-

 

Keith reads it over and over again, curled up on his bed with instant noodles cooking on the table beside him. The blanket is thrown around him, windows left open to welcome wind and he reads until he can recite it.

 

He looks up for what seems like the first time in a long time, and chances a glance out of the window. A blank night sky, and he can't see any stars.

 

The forest is quiet.

 

-=-

 

He is officially acknowledged as an orphan, and as all orphans are forced to, he takes the pilot test. There is no one to sign the parental consent form. He can sign it himself, he thinks, looking at the form in his hands with a quick _not applicable_ scribbled at the top. He is an orphan, and parental consent does not apply to him.

 

If he dies in training - or combat, should he pass -, there will be no one to mourn him. Keith flips through the contract, quietly looking through every clause as the man waits patiently in front of him.

 

"Can I say no?" Keith asks, looking up. There hasn't been anyone to cut his hair recently. It tickles the bridge of his shoulders.

 

The man smiles apologetically. "Your necessities will only be provided for if you join the space course."

 

If he takes the test but fails, he still won't have anything.

 

"I'll take the test."

 

His fingers twitch as he signs everywhere he's supposed to, and on the parental consent form attached below the contract, his mother's signature flutters to life in black ink.

 

He can trace her signature out in his sleep.

 

-=-

 

Piloting is easy. It comes to him in bits and pieces, random jumble of emotions floating through technology and pressing against his fingertips. The ship warns him if the turn he's planning on making won't work, even if it's only a simulation, and it becomes second nature.

 

It's just machinery, after all. A big lug of different alloys thrown together and told it can fly. The feeling thrumming beneath Keith's skin is much harder to control. It's volatile, it's wild, and it reminds him of the forest behind his house.

 

There was only one person in the world who could understand this feeling, and he doesn't know where she's gone. He sits in his room and quietly eats his meals, leaning against the cool surface of the wall and blinking at the artificial light draining in through the window.

 

The pilot facility on Earth is a big metal box. The pilot facility in space is a big metal box. Even when Keith makes the transition to space - when, not if, because the commander has been throwing him looks - he'll never get to see nature again.

 

He presses back against the metal wall and stares at his bunk bed. Will he miss the cursed forest?

 

Will the cursed forest miss him?

 

A small smile slips onto his face and he presses his sleeve against it. Will the cursed forest miss him? What a question.

 

It probably misses his mother the most.

 

-=-

 

_They call it the cursed forest, but as of recently it's become even stranger. It's taken over a house, they say, a house right in the middle of the street. It vines drape along the windows, flowers blossoming on the roof and along the door, and thorns creeping all over the walls. The house looks like it's been possessed by a malevolent plant spirit._

 

_Someone tried to rob the house once, they say. The strange house that all of a sudden, had no inhabitants. The old woman down the road said that there used to be a woman and a boy living there, mother and son, but no one can corroborate that story._

 

_The person who tried to rob the house, well, it's a warning to adrenaline high youths to never steal, and a warning to troublesome children to not poke their noses where it's not wanted._

 

_Sometimes at night, they can hear sounds coming from the forest that has shifted into the house, branches and stems trailing out and back into the dark forest; they vary from night to night, sometimes they're long creaking noises, sometimes they're the shattering of glass - though the house looks intact every morning - sometimes they're just unrecognizable._

 

_Sometimes, people swear they can hear the sound of footsteps on wooden floor, a woman speaking in Chinese, and a boy's high laughter._

 

-=-

 

He's sixteen when he goes to space. Sixteen, the big one-six, the sweet sixteen, the day Keith meets Shiro.

 

He meets Shiro on the flight there, when Shiro is twenty and broad shouldered and kind. He's another talent, the commander says proudly when he introduces his finest cadets to each other. Shiro has gone on many missions to investigate life on other planets and moons, and the commander is certain that Keith will follow in his footsteps.

 

Keith shakes Shiro's hand. It's warm, large, and he's fairly sure that if Shiro wanted to, he could break Keith's hand.

 

Shiro takes Keith on a tour of the metal box in space, and shows him to the pilot simulation room. He's a nice person, and when Keith scuffs his foot against the floor and asks if he can try it out, Shiro smiles and sets it up for him.

 

Keith clears the first few levels easily, and there's a throbbing in his system when Shiro amps it up by around ten levels. He warns Keith, of course - Shiro doesn't seem like the type to just throw something at you and laugh when you fail, or not warn you. Keith takes it as it comes.

 

The machinery warms up to him, heating up below his palms, and Keith pats it, reminding it not to overheat and crash. It happened once.

 

The air around him shimmers, and Keith swallows tightly, sweat collecting in his palms.

 

 _Not now_ , he thinks pleadingly, begging for it to refrain from exploding here.

 

The air stills.

 

-=-

 

When Keith exits the simulation, Shiro greets him with a bright smile and is full of praise for the good work that he's done.

 

Keith flushes and smiles awkwardly back. He doesn't value praise often. The commander is, well, the commander. His praise is hard-earned, but it doesn't really mean anything to Keith, not when he's fully aware he does well.

 

But Shiro looks so pleased, and Keith can't help but feel pleased too.

 

-=-

 

There is magic in his blood. It comes from his mother's side, because that's where all legends start. It's always the females. It's always the mothers. It's always the female stereotype of blaming the women for curses.

 

There is truth in every legend.

 

But there is no magic in him, not the way his mother said. He is in magic.

 

Magic owns him.

 

-=-

 

Sometimes, he goes to the hangar where all the prepped fighter planes are, and all the research department equipment are, and he watches as the teams get ready to go and explore space.

 

The hangar is off limits, but when Shiro spots him, the taller man just smiles and presses a finger to his lips. He'll keep Keith's secret.

 

Keith stuffs his fists deeper into his pockets and sneaks around to stand near Shiro, reaching out to pat the fighter plane. It croons beneath his touch, and Keith's lips turn upwards. The fighter plane is in pretty good condition, considering how the plane in the simulation room is battered beyond belief.

 

"What are you doing here?" Keith asks quietly, looking up. Shiro has a half smile on his face, body turned such that other researchers can't see Keith quite so clearly.

 

"I'm going to be cleared for a mission pretty soon," Shiro confides, smile growing bigger. "I'll be flying the plane for one of the research teams."

 

"Have you ever flown a plane of this make?" Keith says, tapping the brand label. It's different from the ones on Earth. Actually, on Earth, this model is said to come out only three months later. Clearly, the pilots in space have much better technology and machinery. Clearly, Keith made the right choice coming to space. Now that he knows these planes actually exist, and he can touch them, he's probably not going to settle for the ones back on Earth.

 

Shiro shrugs, placing a hand on the plane. "Not yet, but I've looked in it and the controls are pretty similar. It's just a lot faster. And I'll be entering a simulation for it soon to prep." His eyes light up, and he beams at Keith. "Wanna give it a go too?"

 

Keith's throat closes up. "Yes," he chokes out, eyes wide.

 

His fingers are trembling and he's certain he's red.

 

-=-

 

In the bunk, his magic is volatile beyond belief, and his pillow ends up wrecked, the down inside flying all over the place as Keith curls up in a corner, blanket wrapped around himself. He's redder than his jacket and his eyes are screwed shut, fingers shaking as he grips the blanket like he would as a child.

 

_Until he dies, the child will not know love._

 

There's something caught in his throat, something in his eye, and Keith wonders, for the first time in four years, where his mother is.

 

-=-

 

Somehow, Keith and Shiro are sent back to Earth. Something about teaching the new cadets how to be proper pilots. Being the seniors.

 

There's a boy who's way too loud, grating on Keith's nerves, but he laughs like he doesn't have a care in the world.

 

The boy's name is Lance.

 

Keith makes note of that.

 

-=-

 

The boy can't fly at all.

 

-=-

 

On the day before Keith's nineteenth birthday, Shiro is deployed on a mission to Kerberos. _A scientific breakthrough_ , the news reported. _It could revolutionize the way we view and explore space._

 

Keith knows Kerberos. It's unexplored. Unexplored missions are always the most dangerous. There's no certainty of the research team coming back.

 

Shiro is terribly excited for the event, and Keith watches quietly as Shiro explains about the mission and how it'll _definitely be something to remember, this is big!_ Keith tries, but his lips refuse to cooperate with his brain.

 

"Keith?" Shiro asks, twenty-three and broad shouldered, the only friend Keith has ever had.

 

"When will you come back?" Keith says, locking eyes with Shiro. Shiro's eyes are very, very brown.

 

Shiro looks contemplative. "In a year, perhaps. The journey takes around that long."

 

A year. Keith looks at the ground. His mother has taken eight years. She's still not back.

 

"That's long."

 

His blood sings in his veins, and Keith can't help but reach out to grip Shiro. His pulse quickens, roaring in his ears like waves crashing against shore and something dark colored slips onto Shiro's skin, skittering under his clothes.

 

"Keith?" Shiro says, eyes warm and soft. "I'll come back soon. It'll pass in a flash. All the new cadets will worship you and your impressive pilot skills, you won't notice that I'm gone."

 

Keith shrugs, releasing Shiro and taking a step back. He can feel it throbbing, the fluttering mark left on Shiro's body, and it thuds like Shiro's heartbeat.

 

He can feel paw prints pattering along his abdomen, coming to a standstill at his hip bone. There's a pinprick, like claws gently dragging along his skin, and he feels fur. He feels settling.

 

"Good luck," Keith says, hoping that he comes off as warm, instead of awkward. "Go fast and return soon."

 

Shiro smiles and it feels like Keith is staring at the sun. "I will."

 

-=-

 

In the mirror, Keith lifts the bottom of his shirt up and stares at the black cat sleeping on his hipbone. He prods at it, and the cat rises, scowling as it flicks its tail and pretends to claw Keith's finger.

 

The black cat pulses in time to Shiro's heartbeat.

 

Keith stares at himself in the mirror, and presses a hand over the cat. The cat purrs, and presses back against his hand.

 

-=-

 

The day after the news of the Keberos crash, Keith explodes the training simulation.

 

His hands are shaking, his eyes are bloodshot, and he looks like he's been hanging out with thugs. He's black and blue all over. The training simulation is in tatters, a wing barely attached to the plane and the controls are all out of whack. They're smoking, wisps of smoke drifting up into the air and there's sparks flickering.

 

The commander looks at him and sends him to his bunk.

 

Keith goes. It feels like he's five all over again, when the forest is pushing him to his mother. Except now, there's no forest. There's no mother.

 

 _妈妈得走了。_ His breath is shaky.

 

 _那_ _Shiro_ _呢？_ He feels like asking that, asking his mother to explain. _Shiro_ _为什么得走？_

 

It feels like he can hear his mother's voice, lilting and charming, and he can smell the familiar ash and incense scent again.

 

 _傻孩子，_ his mother says. _谁说_ _Shiro_ _走了？_

 

Keith inhales, long and desperate and he lets the air fill his lungs.

 

That's right, he thinks, grasping at straws. He places his hand over the cat, and it's weakened - severely weakened, for reasons Keith doesn't want to think about - but it responds, licking at Keith's fingers and nudging at his palm.

 

Shiro hasn't left. His heartbeat is still alive.

 

Keith breathes again.

 

-=-

 

It comes as no surprise whatsoever that Keith is kicked out of the space programme. Without Shiro, he can't find another reason to do his best. Or even try, at all. The machinery responds to him without fail, but there's nothing pumping through his veins, no satisfaction at the end of doing a good job, and Keith's flying becomes sloppy.

 

The day he leaves the pilot facility - escorted out, the commander says, but really he's just given a three hour notice to clear out -, he steals a hovercraft - red, like his jacket - and hurries off with it, magic dusting his tracks to prevent the commander from finding him.

 

He finds a hut - old, abandoned, dilapidated - and he thinks, yes.

 

This is where he'll stay for now.

 

There isn't a forest, there isn't the drifting scent of his mother, but Keith pats the worn book hidden in his jacket and smiles.

 

It resonates. It feels like home.


	2. Chapter 2

The hut is strange. There are holes in the floorboards, and he clearly remembers seeing mold grow on the edge of the roof when he first arrived. Now, even as rain hits the roof, tries to slide in through the very visible holes, the drops don't touch him. The mold has disappeared. At least, Keith hasn't seen it again.

Keith lies on the couch, dragging a blanket up over him, and thumbs through the book. There's nothing else for him to do now. Shiro's somewhere on Kerebos - is he even still on Kerebos? The cat isn't telling him anything - and he's no longer at the facility.

It feels like he's eleven again, instant noodles cooking on the table next to him, curled up in his bed and devouring the book. It's the only thing left.

There's a shift on his hipbone, and the cat sits up, pawing at Keith's skin.

"What is it?" He asks, gently layering his hand over it. It's become more responsive, all of a sudden. "Something happen to Shiro?"

The cat makes a noise, and shakes like it's getting water out of its fur.

"No?" Keith says, lips tilting up. "What is it?"

The cat scratches him, lightly, but there's blood welling up against the tip of Keith's finger and he pats the cat, rubbing his palm over its head.

"Sorry," he says. "I don't get it."

The cat makes a face and curls around Keith's hand.

-=-

There is something in the air. It tastes like sugar on his tongue, a bright spark against his cheeks, and Keith puffs his cheeks out, sticking out his tongue to taste it.

The hut vibrates, a minor earthquake rocking the house, and the taste grows brighter.

It is a trail of sugar, fizzing against his taste buds and he follows it.

Trails are meant to be followed, after all. There is always something at the end of the rainbow.

-=-

At the end of the rainbow, he finds a carving of a lion.

"What do you think?" He asks the cat, stroking it. It purrs.

"Yeah, I think so too." Keith reaches for the snapshot in his pocket, lifting it and pointing it at the lion. It's a small thing, resembles more a watch than the camera his mother told him about.

There's a click, and the holographic image shimmers, before a photo blooms into existence on his hand.

When he returns to the house, feeling like he's just stolen too much sugar from the commander rations, there's a corkboard waiting against what used to be an empty wall.

He pats the wall of the hut in passing, and murmurs his thanks.

-=-

There is another legend in the book. The book is just filled with legends, to speak the truth, but this other legend is special. The tragedy of the cursed child is Keith's favorite, but the tragedy of the woman in the moon is his mother's favorite. _Was_. Keith isn't quite sure.

This legend is longer. It starts with ten suns in the sky, and the heat rages against the weak surface of Earth, destroying everything it touched. The people pray for help, and a man - mortal, no doubt, how all stories have a mortal as their main character to appeal to humans - takes the suns on.

He shoots down all but one, his aim unparalleled, and he is worshipped, as all heroes are. A boy comes to him, asking to be his disciple. The man says yes. He is too nice to say otherwise.

On another journey, a goddess gives him a pill of immortality. _A reward_ , she says, a glint in her eye as she gifts him. _For your hard work. One for you._

 _Any thing I should know?_ He asks, because he knows not to trust the words of gods.

 _Nothing_ , she says, but there is a twist to her smile.

He refuses to take it at first, refusing to live without his wife, and keeps it at home. While he's out on a hunt, his disciple - lying, scheming, conniving - breaks in and tries to steal the pill.

His wife, beautiful, deadly, brutal - she says no. And she swallows it, lets immortality rush through her, and she ascends to the heavens.

 _No_ , his mother corrects Keith. _She ascends to the moon._

 _Why not heaven?_ Keith asks. _She was doing a good job, preventing the bad disciple from eating the pill._

_But the pill was not meant for her._

No, good things are never left for women. They are only given to men.

She ascends to the moon, and she stays there, forever unable to see her husband, or move to the heavens.

It is the tragedy of a woman, and that is why his mother loves it.

-=-

With the passing of days, he slowly realizes that there isn't much to do. The sweet sugar only leads him so far, and the cat is getting more agitated day by day. It stalks around his abdomen, clawing at him - real claws, sharp and painful and leaving three lines on his hand whenever he tries to pet it.

It's trying to tell him something, but no matter how much magic Keith has in his body, he can't understand the animal living on his skin.

What he needs is a distraction. He realizes it after a while, but everything - the pilot facility, being a pilot, being a senior to the newer cadets - it was all distractions. There are very few things that he values and they are, in order, his book, flying, and Shiro.

His mother would have been first.

-=-

He's in a cave, long and dark and there are more carvings on the wall, of lions prowling around and roaring at the sky. There are other symbols too, and he dutifully takes more pictures with his snapshot, keeping all the photographs inside his jacket.

Night has fallen, and the stars are out. It's nature, he thinks, standing at the mouth of the cave and looking up. The moon is bright, heavy and full and hanging high in the sky.

He thinks he can see a woman's silhouette in the moon.

The cat purrs, soft and low, something Keith hasn't heard in a long time, and when he moves automatically to pet it, his hand comes back bloody.

 _04/06_ is scratched onto his hand, and when he lifts the bottom of his shirt to peer at the cat, it looks smug.

A date, he thinks, letting his gaze wander over to the moon.

嫦娥 waves at him.

-=-

His red hovercraft is imbued with magic. It's no longer a hovercraft, not when it can fly twenty feet in the air and the ground is very faintly in sight. It doesn't even need the engines anymore, but Keith keeps them there, just in case. He isn't sure what his hovercraft can do, not when he isn't even sure what his magic can do.

He's tried making a meal for himself out of thin air once. Thinking hard about eggs and rice and fish. When he opens his eyes, there's a hastily scratched out drawing on the wooden table before him, of a meal his mother would regularly cook.

Keith runs his hand over it, a faint smile lingering at his lips, and there's suddenly instant noodles cooking on the floor.

He picks it up, places it on the table, and wonders when he put the water in.

He later realizes that he didn't.

-=-

Flying on his hovercraft makes him feel like he's back in the forest, climbing up trees and laughing when he falls off them, the vines curling into a hammock to catch him, thorns digging into his back as a halfhearted warning. He didn't care, doesn't care, and he does anything he wants on the hovercraft. It just exists for him, and sometimes he flies it upside down to see if he falls off.

No matter how sweaty his hands, or how slippery the seat is, Keith never falls off. He tries letting go of the handles and gravity pulls him down, but his knees stay firmly locked around the sides of the hovercraft and he laughs, clouds tumbling through his fingers.

There's what sounds like wind chimes, and he smells incense and ash.

-=-

He knows that 04/06 is a date that involves Shiro. Of course it has to be, because the cat is only there because of Shiro, and the cat scratched it on his hand. Clearly, there is a correlation. He just has to find the correlation.

April is over, so it must mean the fourth of June. There's a calendar on his drawers that he isn't quite sure he took, but when he looks at it, the days before the current date has been crossed out, signaling the passing of time.

Keith had just been making scratches on the wall to count the days. He quietly thanks the calendar.

The cat had seemed endlessly pleased, so it must be something good. A reunion, perhaps? Maybe Shiro is coming back to Earth?

Unknowingly, his hands have curled into fists and his cheeks feel like they're burning. He's hunching his shoulders, sliding against the wall to sit on the ground and hugging his knees. It feels like there's something trying to burst out of him.

 _Maybe he's coming back_ , he thinks, thoughts the color of gold and filled with hope.

The cat pats his abdomen, and a laugh escapes Keith.

 _Shiro_ , he thinks fondly. He's twenty-four with kind eyes and open arms.

Keith hunches even further over himself and presses his hands against his cheeks.

Oh yeah, his cheeks are on fire, and the tips of his ears feel the same.

-=-

He's pretty sure he can't control time, because his mother told him that time can't be controlled by anyone, but all of a sudden it's the fourth of June and he's tugging his jacket on, rushing out to wait by his hovercraft.

Shiro's in space, so if he comes back to Earth, there's definitely going to be a sign. It might look like a meteorite falling down, with fire trailing behind as it entered the atmosphere.

It might look like the nine suns falling as 后羿 shot them down.

His fingers are trembling in anticipation, and there's static in the air.

-=-

Shiro's spacecraft - it has to be Shiro's - enters with a bang and a hiss, looking exactly like Keith thought it would. If Earth were smaller, it would probably look like the apocalypse, the destruction of Earth. But as it is, the spacecraft only houses Shiro and Earth is big, so it lands with a crash and a burst of fire quite a distance away from Keith.

He climbs on his hovercraft, knees locking around the sides and hands on the grips. He tugs a cloth around his mouth - dust is a real thing, no matter how much he tries to use his magic to stop it from entering his mouth and making him choke with the dryness - and revs the engine.

The engines purr, but his magic is what fires it up first, and the engines sputter out with an indignant cry.

Maybe his magic has the right idea, Keith thinks as he flies over to the crash site. An engine would be far too loud.

When he arrives, even with all the modifications his magic has made to his hovercraft, the government has reached first. They're all suited up, the ones outside in full uniform, badges dotting their chest and glinting with moonlight - Keith can't quite comprehend why full uniform is needed for investigation of possible alien spacecraft, but whatever, he's never understood his commander, he isn't going to try to understand the whole pilot facility now. It's not like fifteen honorable badges will stop Shiro from attacking them with an alien space gun, if he so wishes, but Shiro wouldn't do that.

The cat nudges his hipbone, and Keith's hand drifts down to press against it. It's been good for the whole journey, quietly settling down and waiting. It trembles slightly as its fur brushes against Keith's hand and Keith knows it knows. It's fully aware that Shiro is in that compartment the facility sprung up in the middle of the desert, the spacecraft a little away, and now it's patiently waiting for Keith to do something.

Keith glances up at the moon, eyes bright and wide, and the lady in the moon looks back, a faint smile lingering on her painted lips.

Something sparks in his abdomen, and there's a loud explosion a distance away from the compartment. The officers shout, piling into the rovers to drive over and see what caused the explosion, and the hovercraft drops, gliding to a halt behind a large rock.

"Go time," Keith whispers to the night sky, fingers curling around his cloth to tug it higher, and the cat purrs in delight.

The air shimmers.

He's about to see Shiro.

-=-

Shiro, shockingly, is unconscious. He spotted an empty syringe in one of the scientists' hands and Keith's filled with something he can't voice. It makes his vision go red, and his fingers burn bright hot when he lays a punch into the scientist.

"Shiro?" He murmurs, unlocking his cuffs. "Come on."

Shiro sighs, face turning slightly in the direction of Keith's voice, and Keith's lips curl up. He grabs the man, throwing his arm around Keith's neck and the door slides open. Keith looks up, ready to drop Shiro - gently - and fight if need be, but a familiar face scowls and shouts at him, stalking over to slide Shiro's other arm around his neck.

"You're not saving Shiro," the boy mutters heatedly. "I am."

"Who're you again?" Keith asks, the name floating just out of reach. He remembers this boy, the cute one who couldn't fly, the one Shiro spent some time coaching because despite the boy's brilliance at flight patterns and theory, the translation into physical flight had a few kinks. He remembers throwing in a few pieces of advice here and there too, but he can't be sure if the boy remembers that.

The boy looks at him with vague hostility but mostly outrage, and yells his name like he wants the commanders outside to know.

"Okay Lance," Keith says agreeably, feeling Shiro's fingers twitch against his shoulder. "Let's get out of here."

Lance splutters at him but goes along nonetheless, the two of them supporting Shiro as they half carry, half drag him in the direction Keith leads them in. The two other boys he spotted with Lance follow, throwing looks behind their shoulders and murmuring quietly together, like they can't believe what they've gotten into.

Keith lets go of Shiro, trusting that Lance will take care of him - Lance, Lance, Lance, the boy who laughs like it's free and restraint means nothing to him - and slides into his seat. The boys pile on top of his hovercraft, gripping Shiro and shrieking when he almost slides off. There aren't any seatbelts in the back.

His magic hums, and there are suddenly tiny grooves in the hovercraft, places where the boys can sit better and not risk sliding off. When they're not struggling to stay on, they can focus more on keeping Shiro on board.

 _The hovercraft better be back to normal later,_ Keith thinks, and there's a bright buzz in his chest.

They've barely gotten settled before rovers roar up, headlines switched on and trained on them. It's a stretch, but Keith can definitely get them up in the air in a matter of seconds. Of course, the rovers could also get to them in a matter of seconds.

"I don't want to go to prison," the largest boy mutters, eyes wide, fingers gripping the hovercraft.

"None of us are going to prison," Keith calls out, and revs the engine. His magic adds a little something, and they're up in two heartbeats.

"I, um, also don't want to die!" The boy yells, voice slowly growing louder into a shout as the hovercraft speeds up. The hovercraft can go much faster than what the ones back at the facility can hit at optimum speed, and Lance is yelling in his ear as his hand flails and lands on Keith's jacket, gripping it like he's about to drop to his death.

"Just hold on," Keith shouts back, and throws a look to Lance, who shouts something unintelligible at him.

In response, Keith speeds up.

-=-

The boys tumble into the hut, collapsing everywhere and anywhere, but Keith gently lays Shiro down on the couch. He presses his hand against Shiro's forehead, and it's beaded with sweat. A nightmare?

His other hand wanders down, holding Shiro's hand, and Shiro relaxes, tension leaving his muscles with a choked off sigh and Shiro holds his hand back.

Shiro's twenty-four now, with shock white hair and a metal arm, and Keith has no need to know what he must have gone through to get those. It looks like a clean fix, and his magic crawls in through the metal to sort through the kinks.

The technology is far more advance than anything over here is, and Keith draws in a breath, running his hand across the metal arm.

安静吧，he murmurs, the same words his mother whispered to him when he was a child. 睡吧。

Shiro breathes slowly, chest rising up and down, and the cat makes a noise.

 _Yeah_ , Keith thinks, grip tightening on Shiro. _Seeing him again feels so good._

-=-

Voltron is a word he hasn't heard before, but once the word passes through his lips, it settles in Keith's heart, settles in his bones, like a spell whispered into his ear at witching hour. It's something that grips him tight and holds him close, the way a mother would to a child.

"Voltron," he says out loud, testing the word, and the sugar in the air tastes brighter.

-=-

They stumble across a large blue lion, technology on par with that of Shiro's arm, and Lance manages to break the particle barrier surrounding it with nothing but a knock. Keith's magic crawls into the lion, swirling around the machinery and Keith blinks, feeling a answering nudge against his magic.

The lion, against all possibility - or perhaps not, seeing as magic exists and technology beyond Keith's belief exists, perhaps this too can exist - is sentient, purring in the back of his mind and curling up against his magic.

"What?" Lance says, scrunching up his nose. "What about Keith?"

He swivels in his chair and raises an eyebrow at Keith. "Are you talking to the lion?"

"What?" Keith asks, eyebrows rising up. "Talking to the lion?"

Technically, it's not him that's doing the talking, it's his _magic_. Entirely involuntary. Keith can't take any blame at all.

Lance squints at him. "You're doing something."

Keith holds his hands up in defence. "I'm not."

Shiro places a hand on his shoulder, warm and calm and comforting, and the tension washes out of Keith's body.

"What can this lion do?" Shiro asks, distracting Lance.

 _Thanks_ , Keith thinks, inching closer to Shiro. Shiro squeezes his shoulder, and his lips curl up.

-=-

The castle is big and blue, lights sparking alight as they venture further in. It rings of sorrow.

There is magic in the air, a quiet suppressed magic that winds around Keith and keens, and Keith shudders.

He presses closer to Shiro, because he isn't quite sure what this is.

-=-

Allura is a princess, and there is magic about her, shifting between the billows of the clothes and winding through the strands of her hair. She glows, ethereal in the artificial light, and Keith swallows.

"Keith?" She asks, eyes kind. "You're acting a little strange."

"Is the castle magic?" Keith says, looking at her. She startles, eyes growing bigger. He shrugs, and tries to play it off as a passing thought. "Just, I don't know, everything seems so futuristic and advanced that maybe there's magic?"

There is magic here. The castle is sentient. He knows this.

Allura smiles, slightly shaky, and says gently, "No Keith, there is no magic here."

Keith cocks his head at her, and surges forward, pressing his hand against her forearm.

"Is the castle magic?" He repeats, and he can see the strands of stray magic rising up, slowly circling around them, a drumming beat in his heart. "Please."

If Allura knows magic, then she can see the strands too.

Her hand covers his, and her eyes dart around shiftily before she leans in, her eyes glistening. "Keith," she murmurs, eyes wet, "there is magic everywhere."

She straightens, hand still pressing against Keith's, and her smile turns sad, self-deprecating. "But I could never use it. That was a talent left to my father."

Allura tightens her grip on Keith's hand, and lets go. She leaves, and Keith is left alone in the hall, tiny wisps of magic floating around the air.

"Huh," Keith says, reaching up to see if he can catch a wisp. He can. "Magic in space."

The cat purrs and kneads against his abdomen.

-=-

Humans like Pidge, like Hunk, like Lance and Shiro - humans don't seem to know of magic. And that begs the question of how Keith can _use_ magic. Just like his mother, just like his mother's mother.

He learns of a witch with the Galra, a witch with purple skin and a cunning grin named Haggar, who uses magic like it's an extension of herself and Keith's heart speeds up.

Allura looks at him worriedly, just before they suit up to save another planet from the oppressive rule of Zarkon, and he shrugs at her.

Shiro stops by, blinking at Allura, and raises an eyebrow at Keith.

"Ready to go?" He asks, holding his hand out. "We've got to suit up soon."

"Yeah," Keith replies, taking Shiro's hand. "I'm coming."

 _Haggar_ , he thinks. _Galra_.

 _你父亲走了。他本来就是不能待在这里的。_ His mother had smiled at him, tired and sad.

_Your father has left. He was never meant to stay._

"Damn," Keith whispers under his breath, and Shiro cocks his head.

"What?"

"No-" the word dies on his tongue as he looks at Shiro, and Keith thinks _yeah, okay, maybe I should tell him_. "I'll tell you later."

Shiro smiles, and they go to suit up.

-=-

Keith isn't sure why he's surprised, but Shiro isn't very shocked. He takes it all in stride, and just asks Keith if he's tested his limits.

"No," Keith says, suddenly shy, fingers gripping at the bottom of his shirt. "I've never, um, actually done anything much on purpose with my magic. It's mostly accidental."

"Do you think you could heal people?" Shiro asks thoughtfully, taking Keith's hands and looking at them like he's able to tell just by staring at Keith's fingers. Keith flushes a little, looking off to the wall. "Like the cyropods in the castle."

"Oh yeah, about the castle," Keith says, lighting up. "It's magic."

"It is?" Shiro looks thrown by this, instead of Keith being able to do magic, and Keith feels laughter bubble up in his chest. "I knew all this couldn't have been advancement of science alone. I mean, yes, technology, _alien_ technology, but there's some things about the castle that seem pretty unbelievable."

Keith laughs, bright and happy, and Shiro gives him one of those gentle, quiet smiles.

"I could try healing someone," he says later, when they're both sweaty and tired and on the ground after a long bout of sparring. "Healing myself from all the bruises you gave me, maybe."

"You need to heal yourself?" Shiro asks, propping himself up with an elbow. "I thought since the magic was in you, it automatically sped up the healing process."

"Oh," Keith replies. "I didn't consider that."

He glances at his arms and - yeah, okay, the bruises are already fading. Shiro still looks pretty beat up.

"I could try it on you?" Keith amends, trying not to stammer.

"Yeah," Shiro smiles encouragingly. "Try it."

-=-

It's a success, but Shiro feels cold for an hour after that, like he's just spent a long while in the cyropod.

"Is that bad?" Keith asks, hovering over Shiro. He's never used his magic on someone else.

"Not really," Shiro says, brows furrowed. "Just feels really nice. Like someone put an ice pack over my sore muscles. _Really nice._ "

The tips of Keith's ears turn bright red at the sound of those last two words, and he swallows, words caught in his throat.

-=-

He starts to show Shiro the little things his magic does for him, like making sure his knives are always sharp and ready for use if Keith forgets to grind it. Or ensuring that he always has a fresh set of clothes even if it's laundry day and Keith _knows_ he's out of clothes. Or how the Red Lion can communicate better with him, now that his magic has woven into Red's communication system and the telepathic communication is far better.

Shiro is always amazed, always surprised, always smiling and so delighted that Keith _struggles_.

It's a struggle to keep it together when the man you like is so amazed by what you can do, and so _pleased_.

He's pretty certain that he's in a constant state of red - the color of his jacket, the color of his lion, the color of his cheeks because Shiro is laughing, dammit - and Lance points it out once, in private, a grin hanging off his lips.

"You like him, don't you?" Lance grins, eyebrows waggling as he leans forward.

"What?" Keith replies, trying to look away. Lance is _not_ going to goad him.

"You liiiiiiiiiike Shiro!" Lance crows, dragging out the word like a child. _An immature child who can't fly_ , Keith thinks viciously, but immediately takes it back because Lance is still a friend. Even if he _is_ immature.

"No," Keith says petulantly, but he knows he's whining, and he knows Lance knows that. He flushes, bright red, and tries to hide in his jacket. "Shut up."

"I can understand why," Lance says sagely. "Shiro is _gorgeous_."

Keith can't even find it in him to be mad that Lance thinks Shiro is gorgeous, because he is. Shiro is terribly, awfully, impossibly handsome. It's a truth.

"You should do something about your crush," Lance tells him, a kinder, happier smile on his face. "You two would be good for each other. And I don't give advice often, so you better take it! It's good advice!"

It's a dark day when Keith is taking romantic advice from Lance, and the cat claws him a little, licking at it after to soothe the wound.

"I should, shouldn't I?" He mumbles, and Lance throws a grin at him.

"I think Shiro likes you too, if that helps."

Keith's face turns even hotter, something he thought physically impossible, and he flings the closest object at Lance. It's a pillow, regrettably, but it still sends Lance tumbling on his ass because he didn't expect it, and Lance roars, scrambling back on his feet and hurling the pillow back.

It hits Keith straight in the face because he was laughing too hard to see, and that's how a pillow fight starts.

-=-

"I like you," Keith says quietly, without any preamble at all. They're sitting on the roof, watching the stars glimmer in the night sky. It's just him and Shiro; Lance had winked at him and hustled Hunk and Pidge away, yelling about something at the top of his lungs. Lance is a surprisingly adept wingman.

Shiro blinks, and for a heartbeat Keith thinks _oh god, I've screwed this up, now he'll think I'm weird and we'll never be able to form Voltron again -_ but Shiro smiles, and leans forward, wrapping his arm around Keith's shoulders.

"I hoped you did," Shiro says, eyes bright, and Keith freezes. Shiro _knew_ he had a crush?

"And you didn't say anything?" Keith replies, huddling in on himself. Now he feels terrible.

"I _hoped_ ," Shiro stresses, reaching around settle behind Keith, Keith's back to his chest. "I liked you too; liked you so much I thought you knew and was trying not to say anything."

"We're both incredibly blind," Keith says, but all the tension races out of his body and he relaxes, leaning back against Shiro. "I can't believe you like me back."

"I can't believe _you_ like me back," Shiro says, hiding his grin in Keith's neck. Keith can feel Shiro's lips against his skin, and it makes his blood sing and the magic in the air fizzle. "I thought Lance was joking."

"Lance _told_ you?!" Keith shouts, turning around, eyes wide and mouth open. "He-"

"He only hinted!" Shiro exclaims, but he lifts his hands and Keith jumps up.

Shiro laughs and follows after him as Keith runs down the hallway, fingers twitching and death in his eyes.

He takes everything back. Lance is a piece of _shit_.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 后羿is the man who shot down the nine suns, and his wife is 嫦娥 who flew to the moon.  
> 安静吧，睡吧 = shh, keep quiet, sleep

**Author's Note:**

> 妈妈得走了。= Mom has to leave now. (It has a double context, because it can also mean death.)  
> 那 Shiro 呢？Shiro 为什么得走？= What about Shiro? Why does Shiro have to leave?  
> 傻孩子，谁说 Shiro 走了？= Silly child, who said Shiro left?
> 
> I'm a little torn over whether to make this endgame Sheith or Klance or even Shklance, so please leave a review with your thoughts or drop by my [twitter](https://twitter.com/zxrysky) and [tumblr](http://zxrysky.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Or you could just hit me up to talk about Voltron, because I am all about that.


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